Jazzy Opens Up on Debut Album, Saying People Might Think She Is a Closed Book

Jazzy released her debut album, Peace & Patience, today (Oct. 23) via Chaos Records. The 13-song set runs 36 minutes and centers on house-leaning dance pop. She had recorded a large amount of music for the project and chose tracks built around two related themes, peace and patience, which she then used as the album’s title.

The Dublin-born DJ and producer has built her reputation in Ireland and the U.K. over the last five years through a series of chart hits. They include 2023’s “Giving Me,” her first solo single. It reached No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 1 on the Official Irish Singles Chart, where it pushed “Miracle” by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding into the No. 2 position.

Harris noticed the song, and the two later teamed up on “Satisfy,” released in May. It reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Dance Airplay chart in June.

Jazzy spoke with Billboard on a recent Friday morning in an office in the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles. Tonight (Oct. 23), she plays a set at the nearby nightclub Sound, the second-to-last date of an American club tour behind Peace & Patience.

For the album’s release party, she will be back in Dublin. She plans to celebrate at a pub with a handful of friends, then play the city’s 3Arena the next evening, her biggest headlining show to date.

Here, Jazzy talks about her origins, her album and working in the studio with Harris.

You’ve said you had a lot of music to choose from for the album, some of it a few years old. Were you selecting songs around a theme in terms of what ultimately made it on?

Yeah, I wanted them to be cohesive, and I wanted to pick ones that meant the most to me — ones with stories I wanted to tell. I feel like people might think I’m a closed book sometimes, a woman of not a lot of words. So I just wanted to open up a little about experiences I’ve had in life and stuff I go through now.

Tell me about how the title track relates to that desire to open up.

“Peace and Patience” is a big one for me. The lyrics are quite uplifting — they give people a push. With everything going on in the world right now, and especially at home in Ireland, I think people need that.

In terms of Ireland, you’ve talked about how if you “lose the run of yourself” there, people will bring you back down to earth. What does that mean?

It’s just an Irish thing. It’s important not to forget where you came from. It baffles me when I hear stories of people carrying on the way they do because they have success. If anything, you should be happier. You should be kinder. I don’t see why you can’t have success and be a normal person.

Tell me about your musical origins. You didn’t start with electronic music.

No, my first experience with music was classical. My school had a violin project, every child got a lesson every week, and I ended up studying violin for years. I was actually going toward being a violin teacher. Then as I got older I started singing, and eventually started listening to electronic music around 18. I started going to underground clubs in Dublin — tech house, minimal. I just dove in and got really curious, and that led to wanting to learn to DJ.

How did you learn?

My partner Ross was a resident DJ at one of the clubs in Dublin, so I approached him for lessons. I had a controller at home and practiced for about a year before I felt ready to perform.

What was it about dance music that made you want to be part of it as an artist, rather than just a fan?

I just absolutely loved it. When I first started going out I was out Monday, Wednesday and Friday — there were so many club nights in Ireland back then. Looking at the people on the decks just gave me the curiosity to want to learn. I was curious for a long time before I took the leap to ask for lessons.

Your Calvin Harris collaboration “Satisfy” came out in May. How did that collaboration come to be?

It had been on the hit list for quite a while. It was actually a running joke with my A&R that we’d get a Calvin collab one of these days. The first time I actually spoke to him was after I released “Giving Me,” because we were in the charts against each other. He had a No. 1, and when “Giving Me” went to No. 1 I’d knocked him off. He sent me a message on Instagram saying how much he loved the track, which was lovely.

Then a couple of years later, I work with a songwriter called Theo Hutchcraft from The Hurts quite a lot, and he’s a close friend of Calvin’s. He came to me in a session one day and said Calvin had this track and would I want to try something on it. I flew to London in December and we got in the studio — me, Theo and Calvin — and it was so fun. Calvin was very down to earth and he really knew what he wanted for the song.

You’ve had enormous chart success. Do you pay attention to those numbers?

Not really, no. It’s nice, but it’s not the reason I do it. I try to focus on the music — because I think if you do focus on the numbers, it takes the focus away from creating what’s supposed to come naturally. You see it quite a lot — people going into the studio trying to make a song that’ll make big numbers. I think that’s not the way to do it. You have to go in strictly to create, and not subconsciously be trying to make a hit.

And yet you keep making hits.

I think if you create from a pure place, people can feel that.

You’re just finishing up a U.S. club tour. How have American audiences been?

Amazing. Every year I come back the reception gets better and better. People in the crowd ask for my deep cuts, songs I made so long ago that I didn’t think people would be interested in over here. It just goes to show how much they share the love so far away from home.

What does success for Peace & Patience look like to you?

For people to feel joy when they listen to it.

How will you celebrate on release day?

I’ll be in Dublin, so I’ll probably go to the pub with my friends. Then the next day I have my biggest headline show yet in Dublin — 7,000 capacity — so it’ll be quite the celebration.

Source: Billboard